JERUSALEM, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security cabinet has approved the transfer of tax revenues collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority (PA) after the money has been withheld for about nine months, Israeli local media reported Monday.
Israel's state-owned Kan news reported that about 2.5 billion shekels (about 756 million U.S. dollars) have been approved for the transfer. The cabinet decided to deduct some 600 million shekels from the full amount over "stipends Ramallah pays to families of assailants who carried out attacks against Israelis," said the report.
The approval came after the PA announced last week that it agreed to renew the coordination with Israel. The PA has refused to accept the tax revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians since February following Israel's intention to make the deduction.
In 2018, the Israeli parliament passed a law to make the tax revenues deduction. Israel's government says that the stipends "encourage" attacks by Palestinians against Israelis but the Palestinians say these are welfare payments for needy families whose relatives are in Israeli prisons or killed by Israeli security forces.
Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. Enditem
